Kenny Chesney looks at the ocean from his property where his house used to stand on St. John. (Contributed Photo by Allister Ann)Kenny Chesney was at home in Nashville, but his mind was on the 17 people sheltered in his house in the Virgin Islands, where deadly Hurricane Irma was wreaking havoc. Chesney frantically checked his cellphone for news of their fate and that of the place where he had sought refuge for 20 years.
With the electricity knocked out and cell towers destroyed, days passed with no updates from St. John. Chesney didn’t know if the people in his home were alive. He was terrified, riddled with anxiety, and he started writing songs of hope inspired by the Virgin Islands to cope. The fate of his friends still unknown, “Song for the Saints” was among the first he finished. Musicians gathered around Chesney in a Nashville recording studio to hear it, and as his finger hovered over the play button, his phone dinged with news. His friends were safe. His home: destroyed.
“It was a really, really scary time,” Chesney recalls. Seated in his manager’s office on Music Row, as the singer remembers how he felt during those uncertain days, his nerves become raw. He rapidly rocks in his chair, knots his fingers behind his head and then stares at his hands when he moves them to the table.
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